Marvel's Thunderbolts (2025) Review: From Zeroes To Heroes

A group of people who don't like each other are forced to work together for a common good (not Congress).

Using that premise, Marvel's "Thunderbolts" hits the right beats and with a bullet.

(For this review, I won't be using the asterisk in the title. That's just goofy.)

It's been a while since Marvel fans have received a focused and fun entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 27: (L-R) Rob Delaney, Kevin Feige, President, Marvel Studios, Jake Schreier, Geraldine Viswanathan, Lewis Pullman, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Florence Pugh and Sebastian Stan speak onstage during the Marvel Studios Panel in Hall H at SDCC in San Diego, California on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)

The easy verdict for this movie, which should serve as the starting pistol for the summer movie season, is that it is the most entertaining entry in this franchise since Endgame, which was 14 MCU movies ago.

For what Thunderbolts sets out to accomplish, which is to hook us onto a rag-tag group of heroes without superpowers (or much of them), it fully checks the assignment.

Surely, its main characters (Winter Soldier, Yelena, Red Guardian, U.S. Agent, Ghost, Bob, and more) won't be familiar to the casual moviegoer. By the end, viewers can easily latch onto these somewhat ordinary people and believe that with teamwork, they can accomplish just a smidge of what their super-powered cohorts can.

What we don't get in big-time superheroes, we get in fleshed-out small-timers in a Marvel Cinematic Universe that feels even too big for them.

Actress Florence Pugh ("Yelena") never comes off as irritating as the movie's lead.

The son of the president from Independence Day (actor Lewis Pullman) plays a character who's equal with his benefits and threats to society in the MCU. And it works.

And the sheriff from Stranger Things is loud and quirky (laughs may vary).

Iron Man, Captain America, and all the other bright comic book heroes stayed home for this one.

But we finally get a compelling flick that doesn't sacrifice its vision for too much world-building that gives most new Marvel movies an incomplete feel.

Kudos to director Jake Schreier for making the film grounded with its themes, though at times the dialogue made the messaging glaringly bleak.

And since we're dealing with a B-team of heroes, the movie gives them plenty of swear words and decently violent kills, since they follow a different code of ethics.

Still, in redeeming moments, such as when they band together to save people from debris or try to fight the big bad with an all-sides assault, the Thunderbolts commit to being the underdog. 

Marvel movies get a bad rap from plenty of people nowadays, but if you're looking for a reason to head to the theater, the latest MCU vehicle, Thunderbolts, can please anyone who's appreciative of, say, the "Ocean's" franchise. 

And it's not woke, whatever that entails nowadays.

Verdict: Watch; 7.5/10.

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